4.50 from Paddington query

[Skiddaw]

Hope I've posted this in the correct place. Just re-reading Agatha Christie's '4.50 from Paddington' (published 1957 I believe) and noticed a reference to a train arriving into Paddington from Birmingham & Wolverhampton. Was there a direct service to Paddington from Birmingham in those days? If so, what route did it take?

 

[Gloster]

Hope I've posted this in the correct place. Just re-reading Agatha Christie's '4.50 from Paddington' (published 1957 I believe) and noticed a reference to a train arriving into Paddington from Birmingham & Wolverhampton. Was there a direct service to Paddington from Birmingham in those days? If so, what route did it take?

Indeed there was. They mostly ran via High Wycombe, Banbury, Leamington, Solihull, Birmingham Snow Hill, Wolverhampton Low Level and on to Shrewsbury, Chester and Birkenhead Woodside. In 1952 there were around ten trains a day.

 

[Skiddaw]

Indeed there was. They mostly ran via High Wycombe, Banbury, Leamington, Solihull, Snow Hill, Wolverhamyon Low Level and on to Shrewsbury, Chester and Birkenhead Woodside. In 1952 there were around ten trains a day.

Wow!! Thank you very much!!

 

[hexagon789]

Hope I've posted this in the correct place. Just re-reading Agatha Christie's '4.50 from Paddington' (published 1957 I believe) and noticed a reference to a train arriving into Paddington from Birmingham & Wolverhampton. Was there a direct service to Paddington from Birmingham in those days? If so, what route did it take?

Yes, this was the GWR's route to Birmingham and direct trains between Paddington and Birminghams this way lasted until about 20 years ago, when there were still CrossCountry services via this route to/from Paddington.

Plain InterCity services between Paddington and Birmingham were still operating in the 80s and early 90s, after that I think it was just CrossCountry services which went further than Birmingham typically.

 

[Skiddaw]

Thank you. It's interesting that the direct route was still available so recently. I wonder why it was dropped? Insufficient demand?

 

[hexagon789]

Thank you. It's interesting that the direct route was still available so recently. I wonder why it was dropped? Insufficient demand?

Demand and also simplification.

In 2003 (and also 2008), the CrossCountry network underwent significant contraction and simplification; many less frequent and more complex services were cut.

 

[Gloster]

Thank you. It's interesting that the direct route was still available so recently. I wonder why it was dropped? Insufficient demand?

The 1975 timetable just has the one Up morning and Down evening train from Paddington: this ran through to Birmingham. By 1986 the train only ran as far as Banbury, although there may have been a few changes to the destination over the following years. (There was a thread on this a couple of years ago.)

EDIT: In the 1967 timetable the trains did not go north of Birmingham New Street.

 

[Skiddaw]

I do love this forum. There's simply nothing you lot don't know. Thank you!

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Thank you. It's interesting that the direct route was still available so recently. I wonder why it was dropped? Insufficient demand?

In 1963 BR announced London-Birmingham services would be concentrated on the Euston-Rugby-New St route after WCML electrification was completed in 1967.
The policy then was to remove duplicating routes - similarly the St Pancras-Derby-Manchester service was diverted to Euston (and the Marylebone-Nottingham-Manchester route closed completely).

The original Paddington-Birmingham route was via Reading and Oxford, until the shorter High Wycombe route opened to Banbury in 1910.
If you can believe it, there were then no through trains between Reading, Oxford and Birmingham except the Paddington-Oxford-Birkenhead sleeper.
After 1967 that route was developed by Cross-Country to become a key part of the network, now running mainly Manchester-Birmingham-Reading-Bournemouth.

 

[Gloster]

In 1963 BR announced London-Birmingham services would be concentrated on the Euston-Rugby-New St route after WCML electrification was completed in 1967.
The policy then was to remove duplicating routes - similarly the St Pancras-Derby-Manchester service was diverted to Euston (and the Marylebone-Nottingham-Manchester route closed completely).

The original Paddington-Birmingham route was via Reading and Oxford, until the shorter High Wycombe route opened to Banbury in 1910.
If you can believe it, there were then no through trains between Reading, Oxford and Birmingham except the Paddington-Oxford-Birkenhead sleeper.
After 1967 that route was developed by Cross-Country to become a key part of the network, now running mainly Manchester-Birmingham-Reading-Bournemouth.

There were trains from Birkenhead to various places on the south coast that, I think, started in the 1920s or possibly earlier for some of them. At times the Bournemouth called at Reading West instead of General.

 

[station_road]

As mentioned, Cross Country were still running trains into Paddington from Birmingham until 2003 (but via Reading at that point) - there is a previous thread here including links to pictures of Voyagers in Paddington

https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/virgin-crosscountry-paddington-trains.69984/

 

[Bald Rick]

As mentioned, Cross Country were still running trains into Paddington from Birmingham until 2003 (but via Reading at that point) - there is a previous thread here including links to pictures of Voyagers in Paddington

https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/virgin-crosscountry-paddington-trains.69984/

I must have been on one of the last Voyagers into Paddington - on the way back from Wolves beating Reading. The driver had a TPWS overspeed on the way in to Pad, we stopped halfway down the platform, and the driver was the first person through the gateline…


Re the GWR service Wolverhampton to Paddington, my ancestors always preferred the ’GWR’ rather than ‘LMS’ services, as the dining car was better.

 

[SuspectUsual]

In the 1980s these were to/from Paddington and Birmingham New Street, but some ran via Solihull and some via Coventry.

 

[Magdalia]

I can't get back to the 1950s but I can get back to the early 1960s.

The original Paddington-Birmingham route was via Reading and Oxford, until the shorter High Wycombe route opened to Banbury in 1910.
If you can believe it, there were then no through trains between Reading, Oxford and Birmingham except the Paddington-Oxford-Birkenhead sleeper.

That's not quite true. In 1963 there was an 0655 Paddington-Snow Hill and 1600 Snow Hill-Paddington that ran via Reading. There was also a 1010 Snow Hill-Reading and 1300 Reading-Snow Hill.

The Margate-Wolverhampton and vice versa went via Reading, daily in 1960 but summer Saturdays only by 1963.

There were also 2 key daily cross country trains that called at Reading West, the Pines Express Bournemouth-Manchester and the Bournemouth-York via the Great Central.

In 1963 BR announced London-Birmingham services would be concentrated on the Euston-Rugby-New St route after WCML electrification was completed in 1967.

The WCML electrification and the closure of the Great Central were key changes. From 1967 there was a 1tp2h Paddington-New Street via Reading and Solihull. There were also 3 cross country trains each way to/from Southampton, Bournemouth or Poole, the middle one being the York train diverted from the Great Central.

The next big changes were in the late 1970s following the opening of the National Exhibition Centre and Birmingham International.

 

[WesternLancer]

Does the five minute 1962 BTF film Lets Go To Birmingham follow this route?

Let's Go to Birmingham | Replay

player.bfi.org.uk

If so @Skiddaw might want to view it. It’s a speeded up cab ride in a Blue Pullman train.

 

[Bald Rick]

Does the five minute 1962 BTF film Lets Go To Birmingham follow this route?

Let's Go to Birmingham | Replay

player.bfi.org.uk

If so @Skiddaw might want to view it. It’s a speeded up cab ride in a Blue Pullman train.

That turns right at Old Oak to the Chiltern line, then via High Wycombe and Bicester to Banbury; thence Leamington and via Solihull to Snow Hill

 

[hexagon789]

Does the five minute 1962 BTF film Lets Go To Birmingham follow this route?

Let's Go to Birmingham | Replay

player.bfi.org.uk

If so @Skiddaw might want to view it. It’s a speeded up cab ride in a Blue Pullman train.

Yes, it went the traditional GWR route to Birmingham.

 

[Gloster]

Does the five minute 1962 BTF film Lets Go To Birmingham follow this route?

Let's Go to Birmingham | Replay

player.bfi.org.uk

If so @Skiddaw might want to view it. It’s a speeded up cab ride in a Blue Pullman train.

Yes, it follows the High Wycombe to Snow Hill. The driver seen in it was killed not long after in the accident at Dorridge.

 

[urbophile]

When did trains cease running to Paddington from Birkenhead? I moved to Liverpool in 1969 (by which time I think B'head Woodside had closed) and I can remember trains from Lime Street running to London Paddington, well into the 1970s or even 80s I think. Any more info on this?

 

[Magdalia]

When did trains cease running to Paddington from Birkenhead? I moved to Liverpool in 1969 (by which time I think B'head Woodside had closed) and I can remember trains from Lime Street running to London Paddington, well into the 1970s or even 80s I think. Any more info on this?

There is a long period in the late 1960s and most of the 1970s after the Birkenhead trains finished and before the Liverpool trains started. In that period Paddington trains didn't go beyond New Street.

 

[Bevan Price]

When did trains cease running to Paddington from Birkenhead? I moved to Liverpool in 1969 (by which time I think B'head Woodside had closed) and I can remember trains from Lime Street running to London Paddington, well into the 1970s or even 80s I think. Any more info on this?

They ceased in March 1967, coinciding with commencement of full electric working between Euston, Birmingham, & Crewe. Birkenhead Woodside lasted a few months, but with only a dmu local service to/from Chester. From, I think November 1967, services were cut back to Rock Ferry.

 

[WesternLancer]

That turns right at Old Oak to the Chiltern line, then via High Wycombe and Bicester to Banbury; thence Leamington and via Solihull to Snow Hill

Thanks.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 9 Sep 2025 ==

Yes, it follows the High Wycombe to Snow Hill. The driver seen in it was killed not long after in the accident at Dorridge.

Thanks. Yes I recall reading about the drivers death on another thread here. Sad. He features prominently in the film sections.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 9 Sep 2025 ==

Yes, it went the traditional GWR route to Birmingham.

Thanks also.

 

[Gloster]

The last day of through Paddingtons at Woodside was 5 March 1967; closure between there and Rock Ferry was with effect from 5 November the same year.

 

[Rescars]

Going back to OP, we shouldn't forget how significant Wolverhampton was to the GWR. Back in the broad gauge era, whilst the broad gauge locos and stock were constructed and maintainrd at Swindon, all the narrow (standard) gauge locos and stock were products of Stafford Road works in Wolverhampton.

 

[DelW]

Living in Birmingham in the early 1960s, Snow Hill - Paddington via Banbury was the preferred route to London, as the WCML was so disrupted by electrification and associated works. I think that the timetable had been enhanced because of the extra traffic transferring from the Euston route.

Once the new electrified WCML timetable came into use, the New St - Euston route became so much quicker (around 90 minutes vs 2 & 1/2 hours), and quieter and cleaner, that demand for the GWR route disappeared. The old GWR Snow Hill station was closed and demolished within a few years.

 

[Taunton]

The last day of through Paddingtons at Woodside was 5 March 1967; closure between there and Rock Ferry was with effect from 5 November the same year.

I was there (and I think some other current members too), at Chester on that last day. Two enthusiasts' excursions were run, hauled by preserved Castles, but there was still some steam operation to the end, and the Chester (reversal) to Birkenhead final leg was all steam, with a few Black 5 turns on down to Wolverhampton. There was commonly only half the train formation run north of Wolverhampton.

The express service from Paddington to Birmingham had actually been substantially enhanced for the last few years, with the Euston service cut right back for electrification work.

 

[John Webb]

My paternal grandparents lived in Royal Leamington Spa, so I travelled there frequently as a young child in the late 1940s and during the 1950s. From SE London we caught a train to Charing Cross, a taxi across to Paddington and then via the line through Banbury to Leamington. When I got to my 'Trainspotting Age' it was a wonderful change from the Southern Region's electrics!

 

[MarlowDonkey]

That turns right at Old Oak to the Chiltern line, then via High Wycombe and Bicester to Banbury; thence Leamington and via Solihull to Snow Hill

The line from Old Oak Common to South Ruislip ("New North Main Line") started to be run down once the electric services to Euston commenced. In later years into the 1980s it was just one morning train into Paddington and one evening train out of Paddington using it. Services from Paddington to Birmingham and points north had resumed, but ran via Reading and Oxford.

 

[norbitonflyer]

Saw the BBC (Joan Hickson) version yesterday. Filmed on the SVR at Bewdley (the two trains pacing each other across the viaduct).
Specific reference to the murder taking place on the day Sputnik was launched (ie 1957) but everything (carriages, uniforms etc) in GWR colours except for a BR Standard tank on the slow train

 

[Clarence Yard]

Saw the BBC (Joan Hickson) version yesterday. Filmed on the SVR at Bewdley (the two trains pacing each other across the viaduct).
Specific reference to the murder taking place on the day Sputnik was launched (ie 1957) but everything (carriages, uniforms etc) in GWR colours except for a BR Standard tank on the slow train

The Margaret Rutherford film version (Murder She Said - 1961) also has some great GWML action, shot near Taplow. D603 features in those sequences. Paddington and some spurious WCML stock shots also feature as well as her train overtaking 2221 with its numberplate reversed!